Here are four things every American needs to know.
1. People can be good. There’s a widespread belief among Americans that human beings are incapable of being truly altruistic. That’s simply not true. Not only have scientists proven that most people are completely capable of being altruistic, but altruism is one of the most important elements in the success of human beings on this planet — goodness is in our DNA.
2. Selfishness is wrong. Selfishness is not a virtue. Though a healthy person certainly will balance the needs of others with their own needs, enriching yourself at the expense of the greater good is wrong. Anyone who follows a “virtue of selfishness” is a villain.
3. Poverty is a societal choice. In every society where poverty exists, powerful people have made a choice for that poverty to exist. Poverty is not inevitable; it is completely possible — even easy — to have a society without poverty.
4. Poverty is created by rich people. No one tries to be poor. Wealthy people — and the people who serve them — create poverty… and they damage communities and individuals in ways that create serious impediments to succeeding in life. The rich are the people who initially created the cycles of poverty and abuse that keep people down. Then, they hold up the few who do manage to escape poverty as proof that everyone can someday be rich — even though it is literally impossible for “everyone” to be rich — and pretend that people who were born into wealth are somehow “self-made”. Rich people are willing to create poverty because they are selfish bastards who believe they deserve to have far more than they need and believe it is OK for many other people to live in poverty to allow them that material excess. Rich people would rather distract us into fighting each other through racism, sexism, and other evils rather than become better people.
That’s it.
It’s pretty simple, but until most Americans understand these 4 points, we will not be able to make any kind of real progress toward having a better society. Most people understand that the QAnon conspiracy theory causes people to take all sorts of actions that are self-damaging, but there’s a bigger conspiracy theory that almost all Americans — including self-described Republicans and Democrats — believe. If you’re having trouble accepting any of the four points above, you have been indoctrinated with that conspiracy theory. I’m going to let you figure out what the conspiracy theory is.
If you don’t believe people can be good, evil people are benefiting from your belief in the inevitability of evil.
If you believe that selfishness is good, you are protecting selfish people from consequences.
If you blame people living in poverty for their poverty, you are protecting powerful people from the consequences of causing real, material harm to other people — including you.
If you refuse to believe that rich people are harming people, you allow them to continuing doing it.